Arduino Command Line Interface

Quick reference for Arduino CLI

This page serves as a quick reference for the Arduino CLI commands I use most frequently. I’ve compiled these here to save time on recurring lookups.

Install Cores

Before you can upload a program to a specific Arduino Board, you need to install the relevant core.

These two cores are used for the MKR1010 and Nano ESP32.

arduino-cli core install arduino:samd
arduino-cli core install arduino:esp32

Library Search

arduino-cli lib search <search_term>

Find the Name field of the library you want to install, e.g.

Name: "Adafruit AW9523"
  Author: Adafruit
  Maintainer: Adafruit <info@adafruit.com>
  Sentence: Arduino library for the AW9523 GPIO expanders in the Adafruit shop
  Paragraph: Arduino library for the AW9523 GPIO expanders in the Adafruit shop
  Website: https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_AW9523
  Category: Signal Input/Output
  Architecture: *
  Types: Contributed
  Versions: [1.0.0, 1.0.1, 1.0.2, 1.0.3, 1.0.4, 1.0.5]
  Dependencies: Adafruit BusIO

In this case, the name of the library is Adafruit AW9523.

Library Installation

arduino-cli lib install "library name"

E.g.

> arduino-cli lib install "Adafruit AW9523"
Already installed Adafruit BusIO@1.16.0
Downloading Adafruit AW9523@1.0.5...
Adafruit AW9523@1.0.5 downloaded
Installing Adafruit AW9523@1.0.5...
Installed Adafruit AW9523@1.0.5

Note The line Already installed Adafruit BusIO@1.16.0 is because one of the dependencies for this library is already installed.

Use library in code

#include <Adafruit_AW9523>